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Mesh Gen
Mesh Gen
USERS
GUIDE
ICATS
ICON Suite, 58 Princes Gate
Exhibition Road, London SW7 2PG
Tel: + 44 (0)20 - 7594 7068 Fax: + 44 (0)20 - 7584 1560
www.icats.co.uk
info@icats.co.uk
MESHGEN
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MESHGEN
CONTENTS
1. OVERVIEW
2. USING MESHGEN
2.1 WINDOWS Menu
2.2 MAIN Menu
2.3 SETUP Menu
2.4 HELP Menu
3. NEW MESH
3.1 NEW MESH Menu
3.2 VIEW Menu
3.3 LC-SYS Menu
4. MODIFY MESH
5. TRANSFORM
5.1 Menu structure
5.2 Basic Steps of Local to Global Co-ordinate Transformation
5.3 Aligning LC-SYS with the Measurement Directions
5.3.1 Using Cartesian LC-SYS
5.3.2 Using Polar LC-SYS
5.3.3 Using Spherical LC-SYS
5.4 Transforming Mode Shapes From LC-SYS to GC-SYS
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WARRANTY
With respect to the physical diskette(s) and physical documentation enclosed herein,
ICATS warrants the same to be free from defects in materials and workmanship for a
period of 30 days from purchase. In the event of notification within the warranty period of
defects in material or workmanship, ICATS will replace the defective diskette or
documentation or both. The remedy for breach of this warranty shall be limited to
replacement and shall not encompass any other damages, including but not limited to loss
of profit, special incidental, consequential or other similar claims.
DISCLAIMER
ICATS specifically disclaims all other warranties, expressed or implied, including but not
limited, implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose with
respect to defects in the diskette and documentation. In no event shall ICATS be liable for
any loss of profit or any commercial damage, including but not limited to special, incidental,
consequential or other damages.
TRADEMARKS
MESHGEN is a trademark of ICATS.
All product names mentioned in this document are trademarks of their respective
companies, and are hereby acknowledged.
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MESHGEN
1. OVERVIEW
MESHGEN will run on Intel & compatible CPU microcomputers with
Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista. It can be
used for the following tasks:
to generate a new mesh so that a display (.DSP) file can be
created from scratch. The .DSP may contain the location of the
measurement nodes for the animation of the experimental model.
Optionally, it may also contain the material and real properties of the
elements. If available, such data are stored in a .MTR file and the
information is used to prepare the input data file to finite element
program FINES.
to modify an existing mesh by allowing to edit an existing display
(.DSP) file.
to process a .DSP file for FINES by preparing input data for finite
element program FINES (.INP file) and running it.
to convert measurements made in a local co-ordinate system into
a consistent global co-ordinate system.
Default window size/shape
The default window for MESHGEN is square with optimised size for
current resolution. The defaults can be changed by editing file MOD.CFG.
Colour coding:
Blue is used for keywords, dialog box options, menu bar options, mouse
operations.
Bold blue is used for program names.
Dark blue is used for headings.
Bold orange is used for program menus.
Green is used for user tips.
Magenta is used for warnings.
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2. USING MESHGEN
As described in the Introduction manual, MESHGEN can be run
by selecting the MESHGEN button from Main Panel
by double-click on data file
by selecting an analysis type from Main Panel
by using a batch file script, or as a command from the command line
Once the program is loaded successfully, you will see
a copyright and licensing message,
a series of menu titles at the top of the screen, and
memory and disk space available, current I/O path and the date.
MESHGEN Opening Menu has the following options.
ZOOMING
It is possible to zoom into any area of the model. To ZOOM IN, define a
zoom rectangle using the left mouse button (keep the button pressed and
drag the cursor). The chosen area will be mapped (i.e. expanded) to the
size of full plotting area. The process can be repeated as many times as
necessary.
To ZOOM OUT, define a rectangle with the right mouse button and the full
plotting area will be mapped (i.e. reduced) into the selected zoom-out
rectangle.
2.1 WINDOWS Menu
The Windows Menu contains the standard Windows tools,
such as Cut, Cut all, Copy and Print. Cut and Cut all store
the selected area from the main window into memory. Copy
copies the stored area to the clipboard. Print queues the
main window to the systems printer.
If Cut is selected, the menus will be disabled until a
region is selected and Copy ed to clipboard.
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3. NEW MESH
NEW MESH has 5 menus.
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SHOW ALL NODE NUMBERS IN SOLID MODE displays all node numbers
even if the associated node is hidden in solid mode.
BY ELEMENT ATTRIBUTE colours the elements using one of their attributes:
colour (default), type, real properties and material properties.
SELECTED ELEMENTS ONLY displays a subset of elements selected
according to one of the following criteria: colour, type, real properties or
material properties.
RESET resets the view.
3.3 The Local Co-ordinate System (LC-SYS) Menu
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The structure and functionality of MODIFY MESH, VIEW and LC-SYS menus
are identical to those of NEW MESH menus. Please see the previous section
for details.
Menu Bar for mesh generation
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5. TRANSFORM
For convenience, FRF measurements are often taken in a Local Coordinate System (LC-SYS). Consider a cylinder with accelerometers
around its circumference. In this case, it is common practice to use a polar
LC-SYS at each circumferential node. The orientation of the measuring
transducer is defined in terms of the type (here Polar) and the orientation
of the LC-SYS. The purpose of the TRANSFORM option is to convert the
local co-ordinate measurements into global co-ordinate measurements.
We will first explain the menu structure and then describe the procedure
with examples.
5.1 Menu structure
OPEN .PRJ opens a .PRJ file which must
contain the names of .DSP & .EIG files.
Some or all co-ordinate directions in the .EIG
file must be 11, 12 or 13, to indicate which
measurements have been taken in the local
co-ordinate system.
START TRANSFORM transforms the coordinates stored in a .EIG file into a
consistent Global Co-ordinate System. Mode
shapes expressed in local co-ordinates can
thus be animated or used for correlation purposes etc.
UNDO ALL restores the original values of the measurements for all coordinates.
LIST NODES displays a list of measurement nodes, together with
associated LC-SYS directions (11, 12 or 13).
SAVE TRANSFORMED .EIG saves the transformed .EIG file.
BACK TO MAIN returns to the MAIN Menu.
The structure and functionality of VIEW and LC-SYS menus are identical to
those of NEW MESH & MODIFY MESH menus. Please see the previous
section for details.
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1 (=X)
11 (=X/r/r)
2 (=Y)
12 (=Y//)
3 (=Z)
13 (=Z/z/ )
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13
12
11
Y
Move the origin and rotate axes, if necessary, until the directions of the
LC-SYS becomes parallel to, or coincident with, those of the
accelerometer as shown above. Matching directions are: 11X, 12Y
and 13Z.
5.3.2 Using Polar LC-SYS
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The origin of Polar LC-SYS must not coincide with any of the
measurement nodes.
Example
Consider a cylinder with surface FRFs being
measured in the radial direction using polar coordinates.
(i) Move the origin of the LC-SYS to a point along
the
main
axis
of
the
cylinder. This point may be an existing node, or its
co-ordinates may be specified explicitly.
(ii) Rotate the axes of the LC-SYS until the z-axis
of the LC-SYS is aligned with the main axis of the
cylinder. The main axis of the cylinder cans any of
the three global axes, ie X, Y or Z.
(iii) Select the type of the local co-ordinate
system (LC-SYS) as polar.
(iv) Transform all nodes in a single step since all radial measurements
are aligned with the LC-SYS. This is due to the fact that there is a single
transformation between the Cartesian and polar co-ordinates of the nodes
of the cylinder.
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must be rotated in such a way that its Z axis is aligned with the X
axis.
Upon selecting At node no, the node number will be incremented
automatically and the user will be asked to choose one of the three
options above again. If the same LC-SYS was used for several
nodes, it is best to enter the corresponding node numbers
sequentially into the edit box. This will save the need to re-align LCSYS each time it is moved to a new node.
4) Once the transformation is completed, save transformed mode
shape by choosing SAVE .EIG.
The user must move the origin to some other node to be able to
continue.
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PROCESS ELEMENTS reads the .DSP and the .MTR files and
prompts the user for confirming the material properties for each
Material number and the real properties for each element type.
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The dialog box can be exited by either confirming the boundary conditions,
or by cancelling. The latter option is useful if there are no boundary
conditions to specify, e.g. a free-free system.
On exit, the user will be prompted to specify a further set of boundary
conditions, or to finish the boundary condition input.
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APPENDIX I
Mesh Generation Commands
The mesh generation commands must be chosen from the bottom Bar
Menu by clicking the mouse in the appropriate command box.
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Use Add/Replace to enter new data.
Use Delete to delete current node.
NSTRT:
NINC:
ITIME:
INC:
SPACE:
FILL without any arguments fills in between last two nodes with increments of 1.
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NGEN (ITIME, INC, NODE1, NODE2, NINC, DX, DY, DZ, SPACE)
ITIME:
INC:
NODE1,NODE2, NINC
SPACE:
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NDEL
By element
NLIST Lists all available nodes in the local or global co-ordinate system.
No arguments are needed.
Element colour
See existing
Material, Real &
Element lists
Confirm all
selections
The connectivity pattern for each element is different. So, a different dialog box will be
used for each type. The user must enter the node numbers in the way they are defined
in the individual element dialog boxes. Any number of elements may be entered in
succession. The individual element dialog boxes are shown below.
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Rotate plot
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Add to
element
database
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Finish
adding this
element
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Notes:
o The element numbering is carried out internally so that the user does not need to
enter an element number.
o Solid elements do not require a Real No. (when generating an FE mesh)
o Spring and mass elements do not require a Material No. (when generating an FE
mesh)
o Multi-layer composite elements are characterized by Material and Real numbers of
the first layer. The real and material numbers for subsequent layers are
incremented automatically.
o If a Real No is selected, user input is provided by a general Material Properties
Bialog Box.
o If a Material No is selected, user input is provided by an element-specific Real
Properties Dialog Box.
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NINC:
If IEL1 is <0, ignore IEL2 and IEINC and use the last ABS(IEL1) elements.
ELIST
Lists all available elements. No arguments are needed.
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APPENDIX II
Mesh Generation Examples
1. Plate
Generate the mesh and connectivities for a 2x3.5 (arbitrary units) plate.
STEP 1 - Define Node 1 at (0,0,0).
o Click on NODE.
o Fill the blanks in the NODE panel.
o Click on Add/Replace
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2. Cylinder
Generate a cylinder which is 4 units high and which has a radius of 1 unit.
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3. Half sphere
Generate a half-sphere of unit radius.
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APPENDIX III
FINES Model Preparation Example
We will build a simple bridge model consisting of a concrete base and steel
beams forming side railings.
o Select NEW MESH from MAIN and generate the following bridge
mesh using Node, Fill and NGEN commands. Refer to Example
4.1.1 for node generation.
o Select Element type (4-noded shell), Real no (1) and Material no (1)
for the base of the bridge.
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o Save the model by selecting SAVE .DSP from NEW MESH. Use
bridge_1.dsp. The real and material data will automatically be saved
in bridge_1.MTR. Do not use any spaces in directory and
filenames.
o Select BACK
o
o
o
o
o
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o Select Done.
o Select FINISH PROCESSING.
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